The ancient Greek historians (Harvard lectures) by J. B. Bury.

IV

THUCYDIDES

137

defended on grounds of justice, that it could not be
maintained except by force majeure, and that if
slavery was an extreme word for the condition of
the subject states, they were generally reluctant
under the yoke. It is further to be observed that
when Thucydides makes occasional reflexions of
his own, he never takes justice or morality into
account, from which we may infer that in his
estimation those conceptions did not illuminate
the subject. He recognised that the ideal of
justice was an actual psychological force and could
not be neglected by statesmen, any more than
popular religion. But he did not consider it worth
while to apply the standard of justice in estimating
political transactions, just as he did not ask whether
an action was pleasing to the gods.
The speech of Diodotus, advocating lenient
treatment for the rebels of Mytilene, is interesting
in this connexion. As the speaker played no part
in history except here, the harangue must be introduced solely for the sake of its arguments. Its
chief interest is that it repudiates the intrusion of
justice into the question; the speaker reproaches
Cleon for having dragged in so irrelevant a consideration, and bases his own view entirely on
reasons of state. Thucydides with his usual reticence abstains from comment, though the tone of
his narrative suggests that he sympathized with the
lenient policy; but the fact that he chose these
speeches of Cleon and Diodotus for working up,
and that he has worked them up largely in the